Love Psychedelico
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese band. In Japan they are often called Delico for short. They are widely popular not only in Japan
but also Hong Kong
and Taiwan
.
in Tokyo
. Only Kumi and Naoki remained finally in the band though it consisted of several members at first.
They signed with major label Victor in 1999.
Their first album, The Greatest Hits, sold over two million copies. Their second album Love Psychedelic Orchestra, released in January 9, 2001, sold 690,000 copies.
Love Psychedelico visited America in March, 2001 and appeared at the music festival SXSW. They also toured extensively through the club and bar circuit in the United States, garnering largely positive reactions. American cities the band has said to have enjoyed playing were Nashville
, Austin
, and Kumi's childhood home of San Francisco
.
They have released two albums since, Love Psychedelico III, in early 2004, and compilation album Early Times, in February 2005. This best-of compilation received a positive response in the Taiwan
ese J-pop
market and the group visited Taiwan in June of that year. They held a concert in Taipei
on June 22 where many fans gathered, including a sizable number of celebrity attendees. It proved to be a very successful concert for the duo who do not usually appear publicly.
For the promotion of their new album, Golden Grapefruit, Love Psychedelico made their first televised music program appearance on Bokura no Ongaku in 2007. It is also notable that they were interviewed by Yoko Ono
, famous experimental musician and widow of John Lennon
.
They released a new album called This is Love Psychedelico
in the United States on May 20 from HackTone Records because David Gorman who is the president of the label aspired to the contract with them by listening to the record of Love Psychedelico got from his acquaintance. It marked their American debut. This album was also released on June 18, 2008 in Japan as This is Love Psychedelico ~U.S.Best~.
of the late 60s, both members having cited The Beatles
and Led Zeppelin
as influences, though the influence of American folk
and blues
are also present (Kumi having claimed Janis Joplin
and Sheryl Crow
, and Sato Bob Dylan
, as influences). To pay tribute to their influences, Love Psychedelico sometimes borrow song titles from the bands that influence them.
Kumi's lyrics are a mix of English
and Japanese
, a phenomenon common to popular Japanese music. Kumi often attributes her English language proficiency to her early childhood in San Francisco, California
.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
but also Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Members
- Kumi (Born April 11, 1976 in Chiba PrefectureChiba Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region and the Greater Tokyo Area. Its capital is Chiba City.- History :Chiba Prefecture was established on June 15, 1873 with the merger of Kisarazu Prefecture and Inba Prefecture...
) – lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, guitars, etc.- Kumi can speak native English because she lived in San Francisco, the United States, in her infancy. She married a man 10 years senior to her on March 9, 2010.
- Naoki (Born July 21, 1973 in Shizuoka PrefectureShizuoka Prefectureis a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region on Honshu island. The capital is the city of Shizuoka.- History :Shizuoka prefecture was formed from the former Tōtōmi, Suruga and Izu provinces.The area was the home of the first Tokugawa Shogun...
) – guitars, bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, backing vocals, etc.- Naoki wrote his own name in their early works as "Naoki Sato." He produces The Bawdies.
History
The band was formed in January, 1997 by singer Kumi and guitarist Naoki Sato, while studying at Aoyama Gakuin UniversityAoyama Gakuin University
, abbreviated AGU, is a Japanese Christian university in Shibuya near Omotesandō, Tokyo, Japan. Aoyama Gakuin University is part of a comprehensive educational institute called Aoyama Gakuin, which includes a kindergarten, an elementary school, junior and senior high schools, and a women's junior...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Only Kumi and Naoki remained finally in the band though it consisted of several members at first.
They signed with major label Victor in 1999.
Their first album, The Greatest Hits, sold over two million copies. Their second album Love Psychedelic Orchestra, released in January 9, 2001, sold 690,000 copies.
Love Psychedelico visited America in March, 2001 and appeared at the music festival SXSW. They also toured extensively through the club and bar circuit in the United States, garnering largely positive reactions. American cities the band has said to have enjoyed playing were Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
, and Kumi's childhood home of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
.
They have released two albums since, Love Psychedelico III, in early 2004, and compilation album Early Times, in February 2005. This best-of compilation received a positive response in the Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
ese J-pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
market and the group visited Taiwan in June of that year. They held a concert in Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
on June 22 where many fans gathered, including a sizable number of celebrity attendees. It proved to be a very successful concert for the duo who do not usually appear publicly.
For the promotion of their new album, Golden Grapefruit, Love Psychedelico made their first televised music program appearance on Bokura no Ongaku in 2007. It is also notable that they were interviewed by Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
, famous experimental musician and widow of John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
.
They released a new album called This is Love Psychedelico
This is Love Psychedelico
This is Love Psychedelico is Love Psychedelico's American debut album which will be released on May 20, 2008. The official Japanese release album title is This is Love Psychedelico ~U.S. Best~, released on June 18, 2008.-Overview:...
in the United States on May 20 from HackTone Records because David Gorman who is the president of the label aspired to the contract with them by listening to the record of Love Psychedelico got from his acquaintance. It marked their American debut. This album was also released on June 18, 2008 in Japan as This is Love Psychedelico ~U.S.Best~.
Style
Stylistically, Love Psychedelico is highly reminiscent of the British InvasionBritish Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
of the late 60s, both members having cited The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin were an English rock band, active in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Formed in 1968, they consisted of guitarist Jimmy Page, singer Robert Plant, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham...
as influences, though the influence of American folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
are also present (Kumi having claimed Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
and Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Crow
Sheryl Suzanne Crow is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop...
, and Sato Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, as influences). To pay tribute to their influences, Love Psychedelico sometimes borrow song titles from the bands that influence them.
Kumi's lyrics are a mix of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, a phenomenon common to popular Japanese music. Kumi often attributes her English language proficiency to her early childhood in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
.
Studio albums
| Year | Album Information | Chart positions |
Total sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | The Greatest Hits
|
1 | 1,661,000 |
| 2002 | Love Psychedelic Orchestra
|
1 | 690,000 |
| 2004 | Love Psychedelico III
|
2 | 387,000 |
| 2007 | Golden Grapefruit
|
5 | 108,000 |
| 2010 | Abbot Kinney
|
7 | 67,000 |
Other albums
| Year | Album Information | Chart positions |
Total sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Early Times
|
1 | 468,000 |
| 2006 | Live Psychedelico
|
35 | 14,000 |
| 2008 | This Is Love Psychedelico This is Love Psychedelico This is Love Psychedelico is Love Psychedelico's American debut album which will be released on May 20, 2008. The official Japanese release album title is This is Love Psychedelico ~U.S. Best~, released on June 18, 2008.-Overview:...
|
16 | 27,000 |
| 2010 | Remasters Box
|
139 | 700 |
Singles
| Year | Title | Notes | Oricon Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc... singles charts |
Oricon sales total |
Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | align="left"| | Initially released on tape independently | 88 | 19,000 | The Greatest Hits |
| "Your Song" | 17 | 140,000 | |||
| "Last Smile" | 11 | 270,000 | |||
| 2001 | "Free World" | 5 | 160,000 | Love Psychedelico Orchestra | |
| "I Will Be with You" | 10 | 62,000 | |||
| 2002 | align="left"| | 14 | 24,000 | Love Psychedelico III | |
| 2003 | "I Am Waiting for You" | 26 | 14,000 | ||
| "My Last Fight" | 12 | 39,000 | |||
| 2004 | "Fantastic World" | 30 | 9,000 | Early Times | |
| 2005 | "Right Now" | 28 | 11,000 | — | |
| 2006 | "Aha! (All We Want)" | 25 | 10,000 | Golden Grapefruit | |
| 2010 | "Dry Town (Theme of Zero)/Shadow Behind" | Re-cut single | 37 | 6,000 | Love Psychedelico Orchestra/Abbot Kinney |
| 2011 | "It's You It's You (Love Psychedelico song) "It's You" is the thirteenth single by Japanese rock duo Love Psychedelico. It was released on August 10, 2011.- Background :"It's You" is Love Psychedelico's first original single in five years, since "Aha! " . The was song was written for the second season of the Aya Ueto-led police procedural... " |
— | — | — |
DVDs
- The Film 1999.12—2002.05 (November 21, 2002)
- In Concert at Budokan (December 7, 2005)
- Golden Grapefruit Box (June 18, 2008)
External links
- Official site
- Love Psychedelico at Musicjapanplus
- Love Psychedelico - The Film DVD Review at cityonfire.com
- Early Times CD Review
- Nippon Project interview